{|Coldplay|} finally surrender to their essential good nature on {|Mylo Xyloto|}, their fifth album and first to ditch all pretense of brooding melancholia. Which isn't to say the band doesn't drift along on some pleasingly spacy atmospheres conjured... Read more

{|Coldplay|} finally surrender to their essential good nature on {|Mylo Xyloto|}, their fifth album and first to ditch all pretense of brooding melancholia. Which isn't to say the band doesn't drift along on some pleasingly spacy atmospheres conjured by longtime producer {|Brian Eno|}: there's still a veneer of classy disaffection that inevitably dissipates due to the relentless sunniness of {|Chris Martin|} and company. {|Eno|}'s echoes and ambience -- the only things that still mark {|Coldplay|} as anything resembling progressive -- positively sparkle when they meet the band's bright, chipper melodies, yet {|Coldplay|}'s innate good manners restrain the album, keeping it just this side of a rush of candied pop. Such politeness can verge on the dull -- criminally so when they bring {|Rihanna|} in for Princess of China, a duet so toothless she may as well have stayed home -- but {|Mylo Xyloto|} has a leg up on other {|Coldplay|} records for this simple reason: they're no longer attempting to mimic {|U2|}'s portentous piety. They've embraced their schoolboy selves and are simply singing songs of love and good cheer, albeit on a grand scale that somehow seems smaller due to the group's insuppressible niceness. ~ Stephen Thomas Erlewine Less